Call for entries

The Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association has called for entries for the Alberta Film and Television Awards. There are 20 class categories open, from documentaries to commercials to dramatic productions, and 13 craft categories. The deadline for submissions is Jan. 28, and entry kits are available from the ampia office in Edmonton. The awards will be presented at a gala in March.

New exec

The 142-member Association Quebecoise des Realisateurs et Realisatrices de Cinema et de Television, the Quebec film and television directors’ association, has elected a new executive committee. Francois Cote is the new president, replacing outgoing president Michel Poulette. 1994 executive committee members are: Philippe Baylaucq, Mark Blanford, Alain Jacques, Jean-Pierre Lefebvre, Joanne Loranger, Diane Poitras, Sylvie Van Brabant and Werner Volkmer.

Godbout tribute

Quebec essayist and film documentarian Jacques Godbout will be given a special tribute at Festival des productions audiovisuelles, the international television showcase scheduled to unfold in Cannes, France, Jan. 7-12. Godbout’s Le Mouton noir, a long-form examination of Quebec’s role in recent Canadian constitutional negotiations, will have its international premiere at fifa.

Winners announced

sogic has announced the 1993 winners of the Alberta-Quebec Prize for innovation in cinema. The winners are Robert Morin for the feature Requiem pour un beau sans coeur and National Film Board animator John Weldon for the bittersweet short The Lump.

sogic has also named its ‘1993 Prime a la qualite’ winners, Paul Tana, for his direction on the feature film La Sarrazine and Jean Claude Lauzon for outstanding screenwriting on Leolo. Both directors receive $100,000 from sogic – $50,000 in the form of a bursary and another $50,000 in the form of an investment in the director’s next feature film, on condition the project is accepted by the provincial funding agency.

Creeps optioned

Lawrence Dane and Chuck Shamata plan to become coproducers and have optioned David Freeman’s award-winning ’70s stageplay Creeps for screen adaptation. Creeps is about three disabled young men facing the world.